FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

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Time for a mental health break.  Times of trouble?  A case of the blues?  There has been one constant fix in my life – being on the water.  It is Tuesday afternoon as I do the prep on this post and next it will be checking the weather and the tides.  The bay is looking awfully good and I just need to stand in the water and ratchet down.  So I think Keller Bay is in order for a nice quiet post birthday trip.  It has been a while and with the wind not so bad it should be fishable, and always a lot less crowded at the ramp and on the water.  Time to get the saltwater stuff out and make sure I am ready to go.  Hope springs eternal.

Weather

93/74  Periods of clouds and sun.  Chance rain 10%.  Wind S 5 – 10.

Tides

High  10:08 AM     0.6
Low  11:00 PM    -0.5

Solunar Times

Best  9:26 am to 11:26 am.

************************Get inhaled!  

There is something innovative and new coming!  Stay tuned.

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Who said anything about Keller Bay.  When I got up it was dead calm and what wind there would be was going to be out of the SE so I had an epiphany, Indianola.  The Powderhorn Ranch shoreline should have some fish on it, and guess what?  The epiphany paid off.

A bite right off the bat on the bone Spook Jr.

When I got there at 7:00 a couple of boats were on the shoreline so I just headed down the bank and found a nice stretch with tons of bait rafting.  I dropped the anchor and went for the wading bag, you know, the one in the back of the truck.  And then I realized I went brain dead at the house and left my waders at home.  So I said heck with it, a little old school fishing out of the boat.

With bait light and variable I just positioned the boat with the trolling motor and let the breeze drift me along keeping close to the bait.  It did not take long to figure out thery were in the slots in the sand where it was just a little bit deeper.  And they were basically smoking a steady walk the dog.  And occasionally stopping it provoked a bite or two, the old toss it a foot in the air and not hookup thing.  It only took about an hour to catch what would have been a cleaning table limit.

They all looked like this.

The tide was slowly coming up and the fish moved closer to the bank.  It was surprising that only 1 redfish took a pass at it, it was a good one, but missed it by a mile.  Several of the better trout brought 1 or 2 with it, and for the first couple of hours the bite was steady.   The biggest of the morning did not make the pics today because the dang thing was bleeding all over the boat so it went right  back in.  I just cleaned it!  Then disaster struck.

We were both just resting seeing if it would settle down, it never did.

It has been a while since this happened.  Normally I am a little quicker than they are but this knucklehead came from behind and hit it about halfway back before I could pull it away.  So now I have this gull, and he is mad, on my line so I reel him close and the fight was on.  It could reach the bait so it was biting it and the rod as I tried to shake him off.  We struggled around some and I finally got the de-hooker on the bait and popped it off without it biting me.  It sat there a minute and off it went.  Unfortunately when I shook it off I broke the tip off the rod.  Wow I went almost 6 months without breaking one.  No good deed goes unpunished.

And than an interesting thing happened.  It was now around 10:00 and the tide was up and the water quit moving.  And then the trout would just boil on it, miss it, not sure why but nothing like a little seagull stink on it.  So I covered it with Pro Cure which did not help.  So obviously not seagull stink, just flat tide.  So what the heck, I wanted to see at least half of the soccer game so with an hour and half to go it was back in the Powderhorn to try a little red fishing with spinnerbait, something I have neglected the last couple of years.

But that did not work, not even a little.  The water color in the Powderhorn is not clear by any means.  There were lots of mullet in the first area, and not much back in as I fished the shallow banks next to grass in the places I always catch them.  After an hour it was time to call it a day.  Boy was it nice to have a good topwater bite.  I caught around 10 on top, and 3 or 4 on plastic, which I did not throw all that long.  No sense in that as long as they were smoking it.  One thing that I find interesting about trout and topwater, when they want it, and for a couple of hours today they did, they hook up.  As the bite slows you can almost tell by the way they start messing with it and not eating.  So good thing I was there fairly early but there is no doubt if I had not forgotten the stuff it would have been a killin’.

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Got lots of comments this week, first from Elaine.

Happy Birthday!

Thanks.  And to the rest of you who sent along wishes I appreciate it.  Your 65th birthday is a 2 edged sword.  Oh my God I am 65! –  or –  I am 65 in great health with a great boat, I mean wife, what more could a guy want.  Thanks for keeping in touch.

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And it is always good to hear from long time reader Rick.

A sincere Happy Birthday. Sorry about all your troubles in big D. As they said in Forrest Gump, “Life is like a box of chocolates..You never know what you’re going to get.” And yes, you are a lucky man. I’ve only got to fish twice this year so far, but I get my fishing jollies through your blog, so keep up the good work and the great job you do telling us about your various adventures.

It really is, you never know.  I am actually “over” it and a little catching sure helped.  And when folks tell me they “come along” with me when I fish it warms my black heart.  The intention was always to share information and the love of the sport and if this is as close as you get to the water I am willing to “suffer” to help out.  Thanks.

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And fishfearllarry is still out there.

Happy Birthday! I am sorry to hear of all the problems you went through. Yes you are mad now, but after a little while, if like me, you will sit back and think about it all and realize that it could have been worse. The scum guy could have been sitting in the lobby and been an active shooter and killer! We live in a world with a lot of “sick” people. Once out on the water, you will forget all your worries! As my brother tells me…you know you have a fishing addiction when the day after you go, you are trying to make a plan for the next time you are off and able to go.

To go along with what could have been stay tuned, there is some interesting information on the way.  And you are right, we  could have been in the car, I could have left a pistol in the car, they could have got in a chase, and on and on.  A good detailing sure did help.  The fishing took it all away, it always does, and when they are smacking topwater there is nothing else on your mind.  I sure have the fishing addiction.  I just finished cleaning the boat and have not even unhooked from the trailer.  Not sure if I am going tomorrow but there is no such thing as to ready to go!

And I hope it is ok if I tell a little story about meeting you.  My partner and I were standing in line at a tournament when Larry introduced himself.  He had some reds, we stunk up the joint, and told me he caught them on one of the places I talked about on the blog.  That is exactly why I do this.  Guess what he caught some, I caught some, and you can go there today and catch some more.  So great to hear from you, hope you are  catching some fish.

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Due to the current brouhaha I decided to post this timely comment from Joe.

Doug,

Edit this as you see fit, even delete the bottom half. Just showing you how ignorant companies have gotten..

Glad you got your car back. Be thankful that scum bag didn’t carjack you while you were stopped at a light. All this money we spend on these big companies and they don’t offer anything back unless you go to the supervisor or higher to get things done.

Happened to me this past week. Drove back from Chicago to san antonio but then had to fly out 3july back at $500. Also had to emergency cancel a flight 5 july and move to 7july wife wasnt out of hospital. Southwest then charged me $1900 but deducted the funds from the 1st flight so $1200. But i had to make a new flight I asked the reservation rep(30 minutes on phone) for some help, said to call customer care. Next 37 minutes on hold and 20 with the guy saying all he can do is get a wheelchair at the counter. And that he was a stupidvisor and had the same powers his boss which seemed to be not a Frickin Thing. I hung up on him, not wasting time.

Later on logged into facebook and posted on Southwest. In 20 minutes not only a response but a solution. They honored the flight 7july with the price we paid 5july flight $750. But would add my fare regular $500 cuz i wasnt on original flight. I said DEAL. Come to find out they gave me a credit of $988 making the flight $245. Figured i suffered enough.

So why cant they do this across the board with employees knowing what they can do. If i could have reached thru the phone and choked the DUDE. I would have. The stress level from this was incredible. Let them be in our shoes when in a 4 week vacation, wife was in hospital 15 days.

joe

Boy I feel you pain as I am going through that right now.  Seems like so many telephone contacts are taught to do everything they can to make sure that something does NOT happen.  And then it is who is the most willing to fight until they win.  Makes you realize how many folks just give up and take the screwing.  And yes we were lucky, it could have been much worse.  As I have thought about it I am not that mad at the fool, he is headed to jail, and he will never change.  Hope the ride was worth it.  But the companies, we shall see how they handle it.  Good to hear from you and let us know how your next fishing trip comes out.

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It is always great to hear from readers, it keeps me writing.  I see the numbers and hundreds of folks stop here all the time, but nothing beats some feedback.  And speaking of feedback I have a really interesting comment from a gentleman who out of the goodness of his heart sent me some really interesting information.  Some of it will be shared with you when I wrap up the great car rip-off.

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Today was a success.  Nice to actually catch some today on a good bite, and still made it home for the second half of the soccer game which was good,  Still do not know all that much about the rules but some of the finishes have been crazy.  Not sure what or where is next but the winds are supposed to be down for at least the next week which is a recipe for some bay fishing.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines